Avalanche 1998

Here's my take on Maya Lin's "Avalanche," whatever year it happens to be made. I'm picturing her, maybe with a team, carefully shaping and layering the material. The whole piece comes alive with these horizontal lines rippling across the surface, like waves of energy frozen in time. It's not paint, but I think the layering and lines remind me a little bit of Agnes Martin’s grids, except rather than floating on the canvas, Lin’s lines follow the contours of the land. I wonder if she was thinking about the fragility of landscapes, or the hidden forces that shape our world. She's dealing with the earth, with gravity, with stuff that moves slowly, relentlessly. It's not painting per se, but it makes me think about it—all the things that go into making marks, whether with a brush or with earth. Artists are always riffing off each other, even across different media. It's like we’re all part of this big, ongoing conversation, trying to make sense of things. It is one way of experiencing and thinking about the world.